It was pretty much a blank slate for us to get to work on. The four of us debated a bit about what would be the best design for it ~ a model of our own house, a gingerbread house, a haunted house, etc. We quickly agreed that a kid-sized gingerbread house would be the most fun (and also appropriate for this time of year)

I made a couple of executive decisions about the project (as the mom, I can do that). First, I'd help them by doing rough sketches of the design on the house. They made all the choices about the candies, colors, etc., but by sketching out the elements for them, the house was a bit more unified and not totally haphazard. Secondly, I decided to use paints instead of crayons or markers. The colors were brighter and we could cover larger areas in a shorter amount of time.

You can see my pencil sketch of the roof design.

Then they got to work. ( NOTE: My son (almost 8) wasn't really interested in the actual painting, but he did plan the design for his wall and then let his sisters do the painting while he played ball). We used regular acrylic paints for the bright colors and I mixed a little bit of leftover interior house paint to get the gingerbread brown ( acrylic paints would have been fine for the brown too)

We did some painting outside ...

And then when it got too dark or chilly, we took the house apart and painted inside ...

Each kid got a wall of the house to design and paint. I got to work on the roof and the front of the house (because Mommy likes to do fun painting too! ;) ). I also painted most of the brown while they worked on the fun colors. We really had fun with it and worked on it every chance we had.

It took a little less than a week, start to finish, for us to end up with this awesome new kid-sized gingerbread clubhouse!

The front of our house...

The side designed and painted by my six-year old, complete with gingerbread men and gumdrops!

My son designed this side with the candy canes and hershey kisses, but my daughters painted it for him.

Note: the roof really does attach all the way, I just didn't do it outside for the picture.

And finally, the back of the house, designed by my oldest daughter, with peppermints and lollipops.

A few notes:

Obviously, since the house is cardboard we're not keeping it outside, I just photographed it outside because the lighting in our playroom stinks. (Also because no amount of cropping and photo-shopping could hide the playroom clutter that surrounds it in its spot in our basement!)

The dimensions of the assembled playhouse we used are about 43"x40"x54". Toddlers and preschoolers would be a great size to easily go in and out. My kids have to duck down a bit, but once inside, they have plenty of room to hide out to read a book or play their Nintendos.

Definitely check out Crafty Kids Playhouses LLC if you'd be interested in making your own house. (They would make an AWESOME gift). I was really pleased with the quality and I LOVED that it was a blank slate. You could make your house look like whatever you'd like and use crayons, markers, paint, etc. to decorate it however you and your kids want. They even have a castle and a rocket ship cardboard house!!

DISCLOSURE: I am part of the Crafty Kids Playhouses LLC affiliate program and I actually received our playhouse for free so I could share our experience with you. However, this post was not influenced in any way by that fact. Without a doubt, we genuinely loved working on our gingerbread house and I wouldn't hesitate to buy more as gifts.

I LOVE this! I would love if you would share this at the Crazy Cute link party happening at Between U & Me right now! I've got a totally awesome giveaway this week, too!OOH! AND, I'm your newest follower! ;)www.betweenuandme.com

Love love love this!!!! I am so pinning this and I am adding this to my "to do list."Could you please share this with my readers on my Fun Stuff Fridays link up?http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html

This is so cute and looks like so much fun to decorate! Thanks for sharing. This is being featured this week at Lines Across My Face.:) Rachelhttp://linesacrossmyface.blogspot.com/2011/11/cure-for-common-monday-18.html

I love your gingerbread house. I can almost smell gingerbread cookies baking in the oven. Such a gorgeous project. I found you on "let the children play." I hope you'll check out my blog: Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents.